Isn't it ironic?

We watched "Finding Neverland" together as a family tonight, and I was watching some of the special features on the DVD. The movie is the story about J.M. Barrie and how he created "Peter Pan". The theme of the story, or at least the theme of the featurette we were watching, seems to be "don't ever grow up". The footage was from the premiere of the movie, with interviews with the cast in front of a backdrop with the sponsor's logos. The irony which made us laugh was that this theme of "don't grow up", was brought to you by - Coor's Light.

Basketbrawl

I need a shower. I feel dirty after just watching that game. It was another ugly affair today at Upward basketball. Drew's Pacers took on the Spurs in a hard fought battle. We only had a roster of six for the game which meant that each player had to sit for only one period. (Two 18 minute halves with two breaks for substitutions). Drew ended the game on the bench with 4 points, @4 rebounds, and no visible scars. The popular assessment was that the fault lay with the officials. Both teams were playing illegal zone defense, both were committing hard reaching fouls, and both were acting like it was a rugby match. It was out of control. At least two of the Spurs had to leave with floor burns. The game started with one referee and ended with two because we had to call in reinforcements. One parent went out to talk to Upward officials between periods. Our big man, Luke, had a hard face plant after being tripped (accidentally) on a drive to the basket. I do have good news though. I just saved a bunch of money on my insurance...no, wait. I mean, the good news is that the boys on both teams never lost their tempers while they were being tossed around. They just kept playing. About our play - if scouts for the Pacers remaining games are reading this, run the pick-and-roll. We can't defend it. The Spurs must have scored 20 points blowing by us on high screens and then taking the open court right to the hoop. We ended the first half with a deficit of 8 points. Our set plays never really seemed to be very effective, possibly because they always go right. Our coach made the appropriate adjustments at halftime, and we were able to claw our way back into contention after the break. I had to get involved after one play because the call on the floor was a traveling violation, but the player continued to the basket and made the shot. It obviously didn't count, but the "official" scorer awarded the points anyway. I had to go over and get that corrected. It turns out that it was a good thing I did that, because the final point differential was only a single point. In our favor, luckily. We pulled out a difficult victory 34-33, fighting until the last. I told you holding on to first place would be tough.
Rachel's game had nowhere near that kind of drama. The highlight of her game was that she was playing against her friend Rachel. Rachel had to guard Rachel for two periods of the game, which naturally means that Rachel had to guard Rachel too. Rachel's mom, Heather, is one of Dawn's best friends so they were sitting next to each other while they "watched" the game. Confusion came easily as we cheered and coached our daughters loudly. My favorite part of Rachel's games is watching her teammate Kara as she skips around the court. Poor Kara is about a head shorter than most of the other girls in the league, so she gets overpowered a lot. They can't dampen her spirits, though! Our Rachel continues to show improvement every week. She brought the ball up the court three times, and she has obviously been working on her dribble. Some pregame parental encouragement to be more assertive resulted in some aggressive play. She took 4 shots in the game, and she tied her career high with 2 points, which boosts her per game average to a full point. The Lady Spartans remain undefeated by beating the Lady Gators by a final of 26-38.

Grandma & Grandpa Leman watch some basketball

I know I'm a day late with the update, but I had to let the adrenaline rush dissipate before I could collect my thoughts.
Excitement was in the air for week three of Upward basketball. March is still two months away but one could sense the intensity the players brought to these games. The crowd was buzzing with anticipation. Some members of the audience came from over 40 miles away. The marquee matchup of the day was the second game of our doubleheader. Drew's Pacers took on the undefeated Bulls in a battle for first place. Somewhere along the line it turned into a hockey game. Fouls are not kept in this league, which was good because half of the players would have been on the bench by the final horn. Play was very rough and sloppy. Various violations went uncalled. For example, Drew's second field goal came off a rebound that bounced off the basket stanchion, which is out of bounds. The team made a little more progress with their set plays, but they still need to work on communication with each other. Several times wide open players did not get the ball. However, there was good news. Drew had a couple of rebounds and at least one sweet assist to go with his 4 points, for his third straight triple-single (tied for the league lead). The Pacers were able to hold off the Bulls 27-22 in each team's closest contest of the young season. Now that they have fought their way to the top of the standings, they need to play their best in order to stay there. Everybody's gunning for them now.
In the early showdown Rachel's Lady Spartans came up against the juggernaut of the Lady Vols. From the opening seconds the Lady Spartans were tearing up the nets in an incredible display of shooting accuracy. They only missed one shot in the first period, and finished the first half with 67% from the field. Rachel even joined in on the fun hitting her first attempt from the floor. Unfortunately, she shot it right after the buzzer had sounded, so it was called off. Her only other attempt bounced off, so she remained scoreless for the second straight game. She grabbed one rebound and dished out two assists to go with her usual strong defense. The Lady Spartans played some tremendous team defense and kept the Lady Vols in single digits until late in the last period. The only lapse in concentration came in the second half when 8 out of 10 players on the floor forgot which way they were going, and we got burned on the old hidden ball trick. The Vols had an inbounds play under the basket, and eight girls ran to the other end of the floor. The Vols threw the ball in and laid in the easiest basket you'll ever see. Other than that, there isn't much to complain about. The Lady Spartans remained undefeated on the season with their easy 52-14 victory.
Photo courtesy Gloria Leman

The Full Monty

Since I don't intend to make this simply a blog for sports reporting, I offer a new topic, dedicated to Brian. It is heavy on probability, so if you don't want to think, stop reading.
Here is my take on the so-called Monty Hall Paradox. The problem goes like this:
You are on the classic show "Let's Make a Deal", with the infamous Mr. Hall. You have three doors from which to choose, with only one door being a winner. After you make your choice, Monty reveals one of the other doors as a loser, and offers you the opportunity to switch to the third, unopened door. Do you switch, and why? The paradox comes in because your chances of picking the winner go up by switching. At first, I didn't believe it, but in practice it is true. It seems initially that there are 8 possibilities, set out like this:
Three doors, A, B, C, with A being the winner.
Choice #1 you pick A, they reveal B, you stay with A = win
Choice #2 you pick A, they reveal C, you stay with A = win
Choice #3 you pick A, they reveal B, you change to C = loss
Choice #4 you pick A, they reveal C, you change to B = loss
Choice #5 you pick B, they reveal C, you stay with B = loss
Choice #6 you pick B, they reveal C, you change to A = win
Choice #7 you pick C, they reveal B, you stay with C = loss
Choice #8 you pick C, they reveal B, you change to A = win
Half of the time when you switch, you lose. The trouble with that view is that choices 1 & 2 are no different. Your choices really are:
Choice #1 you pick A, they reveal a loser, you stay = win
Choice #2 you pick A, they reveal a loser, you switch = loss
Choice #3 you pick a loser, they reveal a loser, you switch = win
Choice #4 you pick a loser, they reveal a loser, you stay = loss
That still seems like it's a 50-50 deal, but it's not. You have only three choices. You improve your chances of winning by ensuring what is left for you to switch to.
Choice #1 you pick A, they reveal a loser, you switch = loss
Choices #2 & #3 you pick a loser, they reveal a loser, you switch = win
Your choices boil down to sticking with your first pick (33%), or switching to the other door (67%). Your chances of winning double by switching. Strange, but true.

Basketball - Week 2

Today's basketball games were even more exciting than last week's. Rachel's game was a hotly contested battle from start to finish. Neither team could sustain any serious momentum or muster a lead of more than 4 points. The see-saw contest came down to the last possession. The other team had a breakaway layup attempt with seconds to go in the game. Our player of the game, Carly, swooped in at the last second to block the shot. Time expired with each team able to claim victory. Neither team deserved to lose, so they ended in a tie at 36-36. Rachel played her usual blanket defense, never allowing her opponent the opportunity to receive a pass. After chasing one player around and around the court she was overheard to say, "You're fast!" She played unselfish offense, passing up at least two chances at wide open shots in order to give a teammate the points. She even brought the ball up the court a couple of times. The concept of double dribble will be something to touch on in practice this week. Rachel was shut out in the scoring this week, but she plays with lots of excitement and enthusiasm and is making progress every time she hits the court.
Drew's game was also a barnburner. He discovered that his jersey number (41) is worn by Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks, so he tried to play like Dirk today. In the first period he tossed up a possible three pointer that rattled around and in. It was the sort of shot that makes Mom & Dad say, "NO! Oh, nice shot." Drew played some more good defense even when guarding the other team's quick player. Rebounding seems to be something he has a knack for. Even if he didn't get the ball, he was usually in pretty good position for it. Drew's team built a pretty big lead early on, so they were able to survive a 6+ minute scoreless drought. They have been working on some plays in practice this week, which worked a couple of times, and even if they didn't work, they did serve to milk the clock to preserve the lead. Drew finished with 4 points and the team won going away 44-26. It was another good time at the gym, and we're looking forward to next time.

Basketball update

We had an exciting first day of Upward basketball today. Rachel's game was first, and she looked good. By that I mean that she had the jersey with the matching hair bow and basketball shorts. She got off to a rough start when she showed up with her reversible jersey showing the yellow side. The coach told her, and the rest of the team, to switch it to the purple side. Then when both teams found their benches, we discovered that the purple team was playing the purple team. It turns out that she (ok, Mom) was right all along, and we were the yellow team. With that crisis solved we played. Rachel's team has a couple of pretty good players, so we jumped to a big early lead, at one point scoring 18 unanswered points. There was never a serious challenge to the lead, and we won going away 40-14. Rachel played stifling defense between the social visits with the opposition. She also found the time to pour in 2 points. An admirable effort for her very first game. After the game she was awarded the team honor of "best offense"!
The second game was not as one-sided as the opener. Drew's team had a shaky start, scoring only 4 points in the first six minutes. The good news was that all those points were scored by Drew. He showed a good head for the game, and had a solid all-around performance. His defense was also sound, and he grabbed several rebounds. Early in the game he even deflected a pass with his head. While the team finished stronger than they started, they were unable to fight their way back and they lost 29-40 in a game closer than it sounds. Drew finished with 6 points. We are eagerly anticipating next week's contest.

Basketball schedule

In case anyone else wants to come to see some terrific basketball, here's the schedule for the kids games:

Rachel/Drew
1/07 1:00/2:00
1/14 2:00/3:00
1/21 1:00/3:00
1/28 1:00/2:00
2/04 2:00/3:00
2/11 1:00/3:00
2/18 2:00/2:00
2/25 2:00/3:00

All games are at the Eastview gym.

A Nother Post

Thanks to my father, incorrect grammar is something that tends to bother me a little. Daily misuses like incorrect verb tense, well vs. good, or real vs. really are the big ones that stick out. Well, I have a new grammar pet peeve. It is the surprisingly prolific use of the word "nother". I started to notice it about a year ago, and I am amazed at how often I hear it. The standard phrase is usually "a whole nother thing", or something similar. Do people not realize that the word is "an-other", NOT "a-nother"? I even heard it from our pastor in church this morning. I suppose that in the grand scheme of things, this isn't really all that important, but it still grates on me when I hear it. I could also go on about the word "gonna", but that's a whole nother topic.